The Prince and the Sword

17/05/2018

Once upon a time there was a kind young prince who left his kingdom and went off to explore new lands and to search for the perfect sword. On his travels he discovered many swords, and although some of them looked really strong and shiny, none of them were good enough: some broke immediately, some just wanted to be his sword because he was a prince, and some of them hurt him badly. This made the prince angry and sad and eventually he decided that there was no perfect sword for him and that he could have lots of swords instead.

Then one day, the prince came across a sword that was different to the others. This sword did not seem very special at first, in fact it was quite small and a bit damaged; but this sword was wise and it did not let the confused prince use it because it knew it would become more broken. Instead, the sword would speak kind and gentle words to the prince and because of this, the prince began to care deeply for the sword. To the prince, all the other swords now looked so meaningless.

So the prince asked the sword to be his sword, but the sword said to the prince, “I’m not good enough for you, a prince deserves a better sword”. The prince was dismayed and confused and tried to understand this for a long time. He did not understand how the only sword that seemed to know how to heal his sadness did not want to be his sword. But because the prince cared so deeply for the sword and did not want to hurt him further, he respected the sword’s decision and went back to his kingdom.

A long time later, settled back down, the prince decided he did not need to search so hard anymore, but he was sad because he still missed the little sword that he had cared for so much. He knew he would be forever grateful, and hoped that maybe one day they would cross paths again. The prince now also understood why this sword was so special: through the cracks the sword had thought were its weaknesses, love could be seen shining from within. The prince would always treasure the name of this sword forever in his heart: Excalibur.